Cloudcroft boys basketball beats Carrizozo in season opener

CLOUDCROFT -- The Cloudcroft boys basketball team did a lot of good things in its season opener.

The Bears were pretty up-tempo and had a solid shooting night, especially behind the 3-point line, in a 61-50 win over Carrizozo Thursday night at Cloudcroft High School.

"They played exactly like I hoped they would," Cloudcroft head coach Kody Adams said. "We wanted to push the ball, we wanted to move the ball. We had some kids that stepped up. Dylan Derrick came in, he had the most offensive rebounds for us. Great defensive rebounding, he had five defensive rebounds and five offensive rebounds. Not a high scorer, but man he makes a difference on the boards. Marshall (Miller) and Rayce (Collins), they played great, had a great shooting night.

"Zach Camino, a freshman, came in and played hard," Adams added. "We had Lucas Rimele go down with an ankle and Zach came in, took over, hit the floor with the same intensity that Lucas left the floor with."

While the Bears were 37 percent from the floor (21 of 57), they made key 3-pointers and finished at 40 percent (8 of 20) from behind the arc.

Cloudcroft (1-0) led 14-10 at the end of the first quarter and lead 20-15 with just under four minutes to go in the first half. But the Bears ended the half on a 12-3 run to lead 32-19 at halftime. Cloudcroft would maintain a 13-10 lead throughout the second half for the win.

"We played like we practiced," Miller said. "Since before Thanksgiving we've been working really hard.

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And we just put that into our offense, came out with intensity and just ran it like that."

The Bears were 5 of 10 (50 percent) from behind the arc in the second half with three of those from Miller, who finished with a game-high 21 points. Thirteen of Miller's points came in the second half Rimele was in double figured 16 points before leaving the game with an ankle injury.

The Grizzlies (0-1) shot 47 percent (14 of 30) from the field in the second half, but never could pull within more than nine points in the final 16 minutes. The Bears were at 42 percent (10 of 24) from the floor in the second half and outrebounded Carrizozo 48-35 for the game.

Ultavius Nash led the Grizzlies with 16 points and Nick Chavez and Josh Ventura were both in double figures for Carrizozo as well with 16 and 10 points respectively. Ventura had a double-double with 10 rebounds.

Like the girls, the Cloudcroft boys also starting the season with three games in a row. The Bears will host Reserve Friday at 7 p.m. and host the New Mexico Military Institute on Saturday night.

"We're looking at this weekend as a little mini tournament for us," Adams said. "We're looking to come with the same intensity that we did today. We're hoping to start the season off right. I know Reserve's going to be tough. I've got a little bit of a scouting report on them. They've got three good ball players that got we got to be aware of. Hopefully we can get in their face and get on them early."

Contact Mark Rudi at mrudi@alamogordonews.com. Follow him on Twitter @mrudi19